Sliding doors have been used for many years to secure various enclosures, including those for cold storage facilities in manufacturing plants, warehouses, garages, and other industrial rooms. It is known in the art that door panels used in connection with such rooms are constructed from light-weight foam. The light-weight foam panels provide the insulation necessary to maintain the temperature objectives of such rooms. Such panels also permit the doors to be opened and closed at high speeds, thereby minimizing exposure of the contents of the room while the door is opened.
Inherent to doors used in connection with cold-storage applications are problems associated with air pressure differentials across opposite faces of the door. These differentials tend to push the door panels inward or outward and away from the walls surrounding the door. Air pressure differentials created by a rapidly actuated panel can displace a relatively light panel out of its normal plane of travel. This can result in improper positioning of the door when it reaches its closed position, thereby creating problems with properly sealing the doorway. This can also result in wear and ultimately damage to the hardware associated with the door, including the overhead track.
Systems such as those in U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,763 to Kern et al. have been developed in an attempt to address some of the issues described above. However, there still exists limitations inherent to such systems. For example, the cord and ring system in Kern et al. does not provide sufficient rigidity to ensure proper sealing of the leading edge of the panels as the door moves to a closed position. Moreover, the system in Kern et al. does not hold the hold panel close to the wall through its entire path of travel.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior doors of this type.